Meaning & Analysis
The phrase likens a person’s recovery from harm or loss to an animal licking its wounds, suggesting they will heal or restore themselves through their own efforts.
Insights
Self-Restoration
The proverb metaphorically expresses a person’s ability to recover or repair themselves after adversity—often through cunning, resilience, or opportunism rather than external help.
Resourceful Survival
It conveys that the individual will find a way to compensate for losses or setbacks, using their own means—suggesting cleverness, adaptability, or even morally ambiguous restitution.
Reparative Opportunism
The phrase can carry a cynical undertone, implying that the person may restore themselves by seizing or appropriating something—possibly at others’ expense.
Animal Imagery and Stoicism
Drawing on the image of an animal licking its wounds, the proverb aligns with a stoic ideal of self-containment and natural healing. It suggests that recovery is instinctual and inward-driven.
Historical Allusions to Economic and Political Recovery
As seen in 16th–18th century usages, the phrase was often applied to individuals or states recovering from financial, military, or reputational losses—through 'violent restitution' or clever dealings.
Moral Ambiguity
In some contexts, such as Arbuthnot’s *John Bull*, the phrase is satirical, hinting that the recovery may involve backdoor dealings or unscrupulous benefits, revealing a complex interplay between self-reliance and self-interest.
Cultural View of Resilience
The proverb reflects a broader cultural admiration for those who 'bounce back,' whether through dignity or scheming—making it flexible for both praise and critique depending on tone.
Rhetorical Devices
Zoomorphic Metaphor
Compares human self-repair to the instinctive behavior of animals, evoking visceral imagery of physical and emotional healing.
Irony
In satirical or cynical uses, the phrase ironically cloaks selfish or exploitative recovery in the language of natural healing.
Colloquial Idiom
The phrase has an earthy, informal tone, grounded in common metaphor and suited to both folk speech and literary satire.
Transcription
Quotations
If anie men haue licked theim selues whole youe be the same.
Hee determined to issue out into the fielde, and not onelie to reuenge the death of his people .. but also to licke himselfe whole, and by a kinde of violent restitution to bee recompensed.
With that bootie he licked himselfe whole againe.
Hang him, he'l lick all those whole.
To lick ones self whole again.
Being so sequestred from the Vanities of this World, they have nothing else to mind, but how to lick themselves whole in another.
Hist. John Bull, p. 240: He would quickly lick himself whole again by his Vails.
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
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